Elemental Cats

After looking at the empty ceiling for a few moments, Toz closed his eyes. Since he couldn't use his mana, most of his strength as a mage was gone. Since he couldn't use mana at all, he couldn't tell if his surroundings were enchanted or whether his chains were purely restraining his body. He still had his physical senses, but in the isolated cube, he only heard the sound of his clothes brushing against the ground, his breath, and his beating heart.

Toz had only tried to move his mana as usual while trying to get rid of the chains. But now that he had already distracted his own thoughts as much as possible, he had to find a way to avoid thinking about the more ominous outcomes of the meeting with the delegation from the Alliance of Kingdoms.

Toz didn't want to think about it, and he quickly reined in his thoughts. But simply wondering about what had happened to the cats made his stomach clench. He could only use his unchanged symbol to comfort himself that the cats were fine. If any of them had been harmed, his inclination would have sensed it and let him know. But it was fleeting comfort since the inclination also seemed to be isolated by the cube.

Toz pushed any thoughts he didn't like out of his head and focused only on himself. He sent his consciousness to within him, toward his mana pool. He didn't have any issue sensing it or the mana within. In fact, since all the mana usually dispersed around his body as a passive defense was forced into the mana pool, it was slightly easier to isolate the mana pool's presence. It was a barely noticeable change, but Toz was slightly concerned that even the mana passively spread out through his body was affected.

Toz wasn't sure what was going to happen to him. But that slight amount of mana amplified his natural strength and recovery greatly, so losing it affected how easily he would get tired or how quickly he healed from injuries.

Toz kept inspecting his mana pool and ignored whatever stray thoughts popped up.

His mana pool looked and felt like usual, an incorporeal orb filled with relatively equal parts of mana of each of his attributes. The six colors swirled around each other, a dull grey for his strongest element, his void attribute, the only one at the sixth level, a smooth silvery grey for his metal element, a pitch-black, sticky darkness for his darkness element, a lively orange for his fire element, a flickering purple for his lightning element, and a shimmering blue for his space element.

All six elements and his mana pool looked like they usually did, and Toz felt like he could easily bring out his mana from any of the attributes. But as soon as he tried, that feeling disappeared no matter what he did. The mana refused to respond to his call.

It was almost as if an invisible layer separated the mana pool and Toz.

No matter how hard Toz tried to force his willpower into his mana pool, it never made direct contact with the mana, which prevented him from taking control of it.

But Toz didn't give up. At first, he didn't even know what prevented him from using magic, but now that he had a clue, he only needed to figure out how to break that invisible layer.

Without any outside distractions, thanks to the isolation of his cell, Toz had an easy time concentrating on the task he assigned himself. Even if he didn't make any progress, he easily lost track of time as he poked, prodded, and pulled at the invisible layer using imaginary teeth made of his consciousness.

It happened a few times that Toz felt like he was on the verge of breaking through the layer, but right at those moments, a splitting headache that shook his concentration overcame his mind. He quickly realized that the layer wasn't only preventing him from using mana. The magic responsible for the restriction also prevented him from breaking free of it.

After the fifth headache, Toz stopped attacking the rubbery shell around his mana pool. If he couldn't find a way to get rid of the layer by attacking it directly, he would have to find another way. From the headaches he got, Toz felt like breaking the layer through brute force might also break his mind, rendering him a brain-dead cripple. Toz didn't want that.

Toz thought about what he could and couldn't do due to the restriction as he tried to figure out a solution. He couldn't reach the mana inside his mana pool in any way because of the invisible layer around his mana pool, which meant he couldn't use his own mana.

But he hadn't noticed anything limiting his actual mind or willpower, so he decided to try and use the mana around him.

With his body completely stripped of any mana, he was practically worse and a mortal with an unawakened inclination in that regard. Thanks to his training and the refinements, his body was significantly stronger, but even mortals had mana passively in their bodies from breathing air filled with mana or eating food with mana in it.

That kind of mana was practically useless and quickly left the body since there wasn't anything holding it in place. But when a mortal first awakened, that barely noticeable amount of mana was what helped them take the first step toward the first level.

And for mages that improved by converting and absorbing the mana around them, that small amount of mana was what helped them take control over the mana in their surroundings. The mana in the surroundings simply followed the lead of the mana already under the mage's control and entered the mage's body.

However, Toz was in a position even worse than a newly awakened mage since he didn't have a single drop of mana to use as leverage and make the mana around him enter his body.

The only thing he could rely on was his willpower and consciousness.

But the difference between controlling mana that was already his and wild mana was like the difference between blowing out a candle using one's breath and putting out a campfire by blowing on the leaves of a nearby tree in the hopes that the fluttering of the leaves would blow out the fire.

Just the idea seemed ridiculous. Unlike the mana that was part of him and existed in his body, the mana in his surroundings didn't have any reason to follow his wishes. The mana might even do the opposite of what he wanted and move further away from him.

But without an alternative, trying to force the mana around him to follow his lead using only his willpower was the only hope Toz had of breaking free from the restriction or using mana.

However, Toz encountered a hurdle as soon as he began trying.

He could move his consciousness around his body at lightning speeds without issue. But that was limited to within his body. As soon as he tried to leave his body with part of his consciousness, he felt a great resistance hindering his attempt.